The present invention relates to travel routes, more particularly to methodologies for providing directions for traveling within a place or premises.
According to current U.S. Navy practice, when a new sailor reports aboard a ship, he or she is assigned a designee (sometimes referred to as a “sponsor”) to facilitate acclimation of the new sailor to his or her new surroundings. The sponsor typically is of the same “rate” as the new sailor, and may also work in the same division or workspace as the new sailor. Notwithstanding the effectiveness of the current system of orienting and indoctrinating new sailors, in which a sponsor personally takes a new sailor under the sponsor's wing, the current system can also result in wasted manpower. During the period of orientation and indoctrination, which may run well over a month, the sponsor may spend large amounts of time guiding and mentoring the sailor. While some of this time is time well spent, a significant portion of this time is time wasted—time that would be better spent by the sponsor on his or her other responsibilities. Each man-hour spent in new sailor indoctrination-orientation constitutes a man-hour away from the primary duty station. Furthermore, decreases in time that sponsors spend on particular tasks tend to necessitate increases in time that other personnel spend on such tasks.
A naval ship is large, complex and populous facility containing numerous areas and spaces. At any time onboard the ship, many pedestrians are negotiating the areas and spaces in order to get from one location to another. Navigating the labyrinthic interior of the ship can be difficult for sailors who are unfamiliar with the ship, and is often no simple matter even for sailors who are familiar with the ship. Common time-inefficient endeavors for sponsors involve directing and/or accompanying new sailors between various locations onboard the ship. In addition to Navy sailors, various other categories of people (e.g., non-Navy military personnel, government civilian employee personnel, government contractor personnel), on temporary onboard assignment, may require navigational assistance. Similar considerations as discussed hereinabove with regard to ships may apply to land-based facilities such as buildings, installations, complexes and stadiums. The desirability is manifest for a methodology of facilitating travel of an unacclimated person from one location to another in the confines of a ship or other facility without unduly occupying an acclimated person's time.